A Catholic bishop has condemned the harassment of staff from a Church-run school, including a priest and two nuns, while they were on a picnic, by alleged Hindu activists in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. “The men stopped us on spotting the nuns and some of our staff wearing rosaries around their necks, and started interrogating us,” said Father Sonu Vansuniya, the principal of New Catholic Mission Sch-ool under the Catholic diocese of Jhabua. The men claimed to be members of the Hindu organization, Bajrang Dal, or the army of the Hindu god Hanuman, and he recalled that they “suspected we were carry-ing out conversion activities.” “They stopped us from getting into our bus after leaving the park we were visiting, and instead told us to accompany them to the nearest police station,” Vansuniya told on May 2. When refused, they began questioning members of the staff, mostly from indige-nous tribal or Dalit (formerly untouchable) backgrounds, if “they were being lured or forced to accept Christianity,” he said. Meanwhile, some police officers arrived at the scene and repeated the same questions that the Hindu acti-vists were posing. “Failing to find anything wrong or obje-ctionable, the police allowed us to leave after around two hours of harassment in full public view,” Vansuniya said. Bishop Thomas Mathew Kutti-mackal of the Indore diocese condemned the incident that occurred in his jurisdiction.

A Christian-majority tribal group in India’s Manipur state has reiterated its demand for a separate administrative area as it marked the second anniver-sary of the outbreak of ethnic violence between them and the Hindu-majority Meitei people. Kuki-Zo communities observed May 3 as “Separation Day,” marking the start of the unpre-cedented ethnic violence in 2023 that has claimed at least 260 lives and displaced some 60,000 people, mostly Christi-ans. Thousands gathered for a memorial service at the Wall of Remembrance in Kuki-Zo dominated Churachandpur district, where they read the Bible and sang hymns for those lost in the violence. Ginza Vualzong, spokesperson for the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF), said that the community demands a federally ruled separate territory because “that’s the only option for ensu-ring welfare and justice for the indigenous communities.” He said Kuki-Zo and Meitei people “can no longer coexist” in one state and under the same administration, as people have lost trust in administrative sys-tems involving Meitei people. Violence erupted when Meitei people attacked a Kuki-Zo march protesting a government initiative to classify the Meitei as tribal. This classification would grant the Meitei, an economically and politically influential group, access to benefits from the state’s affir-mative action program designed for weaker sections of society.

An Indian court has de-nied Christians of Dalit origin legal protections meant for lower caste people, saying a person who converted to Chri-stianity cannot claim to be a member of a lower caste group. The Andhra Pradesh High Court, the highest court in the southern Indian state, issued the ruling in an appeal challenging criminal proceedings against a group of non-Christians, based on a complaint by a Protestant pastor. The pastor, who comes from the Dalit community, officially referred to as Scheduled Caste people, filed the complaint in January 2021 against a group of people who allegedly abused him, violating clauses of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

Church leaders in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand have deplored the continuing persecution of tribal Christians in the state by “anti-social groups” with the backing of some political parties. “These anti-social groups are certainly backed by bigger forces, including political parties; else how can they take the law into their hands?” said Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas of Daltonganj. The prelate said a sustained campaign is underway against the work done by the Christian missionaries for the welfare of the tribal people in Jharkhand. “Religious conversion is alleged very often nowadays with no basis or proof by some anti-social elements who do not want peace to prevail in the state,” Mascarenhas told on May 2. He referred to the latest incident of six Christian families in his diocese who were forced to abandon their homes and flee, fearing for their lives. These Christian families from Hata village in Latehar district were threatened by a pro-Hindu group for refusing to donate money for Sarhul, a spring festival celebrated in early April by various tribal groups in Jharkhand. The six families left the village on April 28, reported the local ETV Bharat news channel. The report quoted Nageswar Oraon, one of the Christians who is now living with his family in a neighbouring village, saying that “since we had no money, we expressed inability to pay for the festival.” “We were threatened and attacked by some villagers because we are Christians,” he added.

Church leaders in northern India’s Punjab state have blamed a lack of urgency by authorities in dealing with bootleg liquor for the deaths of at least 17 people this week. Government officials told the media on May 13 that three people were still in critical condition after drinking spurious liquor in the Majitha area of Amritsar district. The tragedy “could have been avoided easily had authorities been alert. It is a man-made tragedy,” Bishop Agnelo Rufino Gracias, the Apostolic Administrator of Jalandhar diocese, told on May 13. Gracias, whose diocese covers the entire Punjab, expressed his “heartfelt condolences” to the bereaved families who lost their loved ones. “What is disheartening is that we have not learned from the past experience” of 2020, when 121 people died after consuming spurious liquor in the state, the prelate said. “It’s very unfortunate that some money-minded people are risking the lives of ordinary citizens by supplying substandard things.”  Gracias stressed that the government must combat the life-threatening and illegal liquor business by arresting the people involved in it. A Church leader who wished to remain anonymous, said that the church was unaware of any Christian families affected by the tragedy.